docs(adr-0002): lock TAI tokenomics — 1B supply, revenue-backed, 90% floor

Locked decisions:
- 1 billion TAI hard cap, no minting, halving-style emission decay
- No transfer tax; spread-only revenue, decreases with volume
- Buyback floor = 90% of current organic backing price (ratcheting up)
- Wind-down guarantee: 90% floor always funded by protocol spread
- Post-listing speculative risk acknowledged and accepted
- Node bootstrap: probationary period = stake-free entry (no loan/grant)
- Listing threshold (provisional): $50k volume AND 25 nodes / 15+ operators

Open parameters noted: halving schedule, dynamic spread curve, listing %, legal.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>

docs/adr/0002-dual-token-payment-model.md

@@ -1,21 +1,27 @@
 # TAI token: revenue-backed rewards for nodes, USDT/SOL payments for clients
 
+## Core principle
+
+Nodes must get paid reliably for inference work. This is the primary growth engine. All tokenomics decisions serve this goal first. The model is intentionally simple and sound — parameters can be tweaked later, but the structure must have no fatal flaws from day one.
+
 ## Token
 
-The native token is named **TAI**. Fixed total supply (BTC-inspired — exact number TBD, see open questions). No ongoing minting after the initial issuance. Inflation is near-zero by design; any small scheduled emission follows a halving-style curve so early node operators earn disproportionately more, creating the viral early-adopter incentive.
+**Name:** TAI  
+**Total supply:** 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) — fixed forever, no minting after initial issuance.  
+**Inflation:** Zero. BTC-style hard cap. No additional tokens are ever created.  
+**Emission schedule:** Team distributes TAI to nodes from team holdings on a halving-style decay curve — early nodes earn more TAI per dollar of compute than later nodes. This rewards bootstrapping risk. Exact halving intervals are TBD but the principle is locked.
 
-Clients never hold or see TAI. They pay in USDT or SOL. Nodes earn TAI. This separation keeps the client experience frictionless while giving node operators early-adopter upside.
+Clients never hold or see TAI. They pay in USDT or SOL. Nodes earn TAI. This separation keeps the client experience frictionless while giving node operators asymmetric early-adopter upside.
 
 ## Revenue-backed price model
 
-TAI is not traded on any open market during the bootstrap phase. The only way TAI enters circulation is as a node reward for completed inference work. The price is therefore organically backed by real compute revenue, not speculation.
+TAI has no open market during the bootstrap phase. The only way TAI enters circulation is as a node reward for completed inference work. Price is therefore backed by real compute revenue, not speculation.
 
-**Conceptual price anchor:**
 ```
-TAI backing ratio ≈ USDT in protocol treasury / TAI in circulation
+TAI backing price = USDT in protocol treasury / TAI in circulation
 ```
 
-Price starts very low (near zero) and only rises as inference payments accumulate in treasury. There is no initial liquidity pool or AMM. The team sets a symbolic starting price (e.g. $0.0001) as the baseline for first reward calculations.
+Price starts near zero (team sets a symbolic starting price, e.g. $0.0001) and only rises as inference payments accumulate. There is no AMM, no liquidity pool, no external price discovery during bootstrap. The team is the sole issuer and sole buyer.
 
 ## Payment and reward flow
 
@@ -24,75 +30,92 @@ Client pays $100 USDT for inference
     └─ Protocol treasury receives $100 USDT
 
 Node completes compute work
-    └─ Node earns TAI worth $95 at current TAI price
+    └─ Node earns TAI worth $95 at current backing price
        (team transfers TAI from team holdings to node wallet)
-    └─ Protocol keeps $5 as operating spread (~5% of inference volume)
+    └─ Protocol keeps $5 as operating spread
 
-Node wants to exit (sell TAI):
-    └─ Team buys back at 95% of current price
-    └─ Node receives $90.25 USDT (95% × $95)
-    └─ Team recovers the TAI + keeps $9.75 total on the round-trip
+Node wants to exit:
+    └─ Team buys back at 90% of current backing price
+    └─ Node receives ~$85.50 USDT
+    └─ Team recovers TAI + keeps ~$14.50 total on round-trip
 
 Node holds TAI:
-    └─ Team keeps $95 USDT in treasury (backs future appreciation)
-    └─ Node benefits from price appreciation as more inference happens
+    └─ Team keeps $95 USDT in treasury → backing price rises → TAI appreciates
+    └─ Holding is always strictly better than selling immediately
 ```
 
-The 5% spread on issuance + 5% spread on buyback compounds to ~9.75% protocol revenue on fully round-tripped volume. Nodes who hold TAI instead of selling immediately retain the full $95 value and benefit from price appreciation — a natural incentive to hold.
+## Dynamic spread
+
+The protocol spread (~5% on issuance + ~10% effective on full round-trips) is the **minimum viable** amount to sustain operations and maintain the wind-down reserve. As inference volume grows, the spread decreases. The target is the lowest spread consistent with:
+
+1. Covering infrastructure and operating costs
+2. Maintaining the wind-down reserve (see below)
+3. Maintaining enough reserve to resist hostile market actions post-listing
+
+There is no transfer tax, no reflection mechanic, no fee on wallet-to-wallet TAI transfers. Democratising AI inference means keeping friction as low as possible. Protocol revenue comes only from the inference spread.
+
+## Buyback floor and wind-down guarantee
+
+The protocol maintains a **90% buyback floor on the current organic backing price** at all times.
+
+```
+Floor = 90% × (USDT treasury / TAI in circulation)
+```
+
+This floor **ratchets upward** — it never falls — because the backing price only rises as inference volume accumulates USDT into treasury. TAI therefore cannot go to zero as long as the protocol operates.
+
+**Wind-down guarantee:** If the project is shut down, the protocol buys back all circulating TAI at 90% of the backing price at time of shutdown. Every node that earned TAI through legitimate compute work can exit at this floor. The floor is always funded because the protocol collected at least $90.25 for every $85.50 it owes on a full round-trip — the reserve builds automatically from the spread.
+
+**Post-listing risk (acknowledged):** Once TAI is listed on an open market, speculative demand may push the market price above the organic backing. Nodes who earned TAI during a speculative spike and hold through a correction back to backing may redeem below their earn price. This is an accepted market risk — the protocol guarantees the backing floor, not speculative peaks. The incentive to hold is that backing grows with every inference payment; selling at the wrong moment after a speculative spike is the node's risk to manage.
 
 ## Team distribution schedule
 
-The team begins holding ~100% of the total TAI supply. Over approximately 5 years, the team distributes TAI to nodes as inference rewards, reaching a long-term target of **36% team holding**. The remaining ~64% is in the hands of node operators and, eventually, open-market participants.
+Team begins holding ~100% of the 1 billion TAI supply. Over approximately 5 years of inference rewards to nodes, the team reaches a **long-term target of 36% holdings** (~640 million TAI distributed to node operators).
 
-The distribution is not linear — it follows a halving-style decay so early nodes earn more TAI per USDT of compute than later nodes. This rewards the bootstrapping risk.
+Distribution is not linear — the halving decay means early node operators receive a disproportionate share, rewarding those who take the bootstrapping risk.
 
-**Open market listing:** Only after the network reaches a healthy market cap (specific threshold TBD). At listing, only a defined percentage of team holdings is made available — not the full 36%. This prevents a supply shock.
+## Open-market listing (provisional)
 
-## Wind-down guarantee
+Open-market listing is announced only when **both** of the following thresholds are met:
 
-If the project is shut down before reaching sustainable scale, the protocol guarantees it can buy back every TAI it has ever issued as a compute reward at the price at which it was originally issued. This is made possible because:
+- **Volume:** $50,000 cumulative USDT inference volume paid through the network
+- **Nodes:** 25+ active nodes across 15+ unique wallet operators
 
-1. Every inference payment flows into treasury first
-2. The protocol only distributes TAI worth 95% of each inference payment
-3. The 5% spread per transaction accumulates as the wind-down reserve
-4. Even if all nodes sell immediately at 95%, the protocol collects ~9.75% of every dollar of inference volume as reserve
+Both gates must pass simultaneously. Neither alone is sufficient. These specific numbers are provisional and will be reviewed as the network grows — what matters is that listing happens only after real usage and real decentralisation are established, not before.
 
-Net effect: the protocol is always solvent to honor its obligations to node operators. No node that earned TAI through legitimate compute work can lose money if the project closes — they can always redeem at the issue price they received.
+At listing, only a portion of team holdings is made available to the open market. The specific percentage will be decided at listing time based on market conditions. The team does not dump its full 36% at listing.
 
-## Protocol tax on volume
+## Node staking bootstrap
 
-The protocol collects approximately **10% of inference volume** as operating revenue, composed of:
-- ~5% spread on TAI issuance to nodes (client pays $100, node gets $95 of TAI)
-- ~5% spread on TAI buybacks (node sells $95 TAI, receives $90.25 USDT)
+New nodes have no TAI and TAI is not on any open market. Bootstrapping is solved through the existing probationary period (ADR-0003):
 
-This ~10% accumulates in the protocol treasury and serves three purposes in priority order:
-1. Wind-down reserve (guarantee buyback of all circulating TAI at issue price)
-2. Operating costs (infrastructure, legal, development)
-3. Team profit (only after 1 and 2 are fully funded)
+- **During probation (first N jobs):** zero TAI stake required, zero TAI earnings, zero slashing risk. The node proves good faith through free compute work.
+- **After probation:** node has accumulated TAI rewards from which it locks a minimum stake. Full earning and slashing enforcement begins.
+
+No loan, no grant, no special mechanism. The probationary period is the stake substitute.
 
 ## Prototype contract boundary
 
-The `packages/contracts` settlement layer tracks three ledgers:
+The `packages/contracts` settlement layer tracks:
 - `caller_balance[api_key]` — USDT/SOL prepaid by clients
-- `node_tai_balance[wallet]` — TAI earned by nodes, unredeemed
+- `node_tai_balance[wallet]` — TAI earned, unredeemed
 - `node_tai_stake[wallet]` — TAI locked as fraud collateral
 - `protocol_usdt_reserve` — accumulated spread, earmarked as wind-down reserve
 
-Epoch settlement: debits caller USDT for consumed compute, credits node TAI rewards weighted by layers served × node speed benchmark. No live Solana settlement in prototype — contract boundary is a deterministic local adapter (see ADR-0007).
+Epoch settlement debits caller USDT, credits node TAI weighted by layers served × node speed benchmark. No live Solana settlement in prototype — contract boundary is a local deterministic adapter (ADR-0007).
 
-## Considered Options
+## Considered options
 
-- **SOL only**: no early-adopter upside for nodes, no viral growth mechanic — rejected
-- **Own token only**: clients must acquire TAI — high friction, kills adoption — rejected
-- **AMM / open market from day one**: exposes early price to speculation and manipulation before real volume establishes a floor — rejected
-- **Revenue-backed TAI, no open market during bootstrap**: chosen — price is anchored to real compute work, wind-down guarantee is mathematically fundable, speculation cannot crash price before network effect is established
+- **SOL only:** no early-adopter upside for nodes, no viral growth mechanic — rejected
+- **Own token only:** clients must acquire TAI — high friction, kills adoption — rejected
+- **AMM / open market from day one:** exposes price to speculation before real volume establishes backing floor; bank-run risk before treasury is deep — rejected
+- **Transfer tax / reflection mechanic:** breaks DEX compatibility, hostile to users, contradicts democratisation goal — rejected
+- **Revenue-backed TAI, no open market during bootstrap:** price anchored to real compute work, wind-down guarantee is always funded by the spread, speculation cannot crash price before network effect is established — **chosen**
 
-## Open questions (to be resolved before token launch)
+## Open parameters (to be resolved before token launch)
 
-- Total TAI supply (21M BTC-style? 100M? 1B?)
-- Exact halving schedule for node emission rate
-- Specific market-cap threshold for open-market listing
-- Percentage of team holdings offered at listing vs. held long-term
-- Rate limit on buybacks (max USDT/day per wallet to prevent bank-run drain)
-- Node staking bootstrapping: how do new nodes acquire stake TAI before they have earned any (given TAI is not on open market)?
-- Legal structure for token distribution in target jurisdictions
+- Exact halving schedule: at what cumulative TAI distributed does each halving trigger?
+- Dynamic spread curve: at what volume levels does the spread decrease, and what is the minimum floor?
+- Percentage of team holdings offered at open-market listing
+- Rate limit on buybacks (max USDT/day per wallet) to prevent coordinated drain attacks
+- Legal structure for token distribution in target jurisdictions (securities classification review required before any public listing)